In a statement emailed to THE DAILY, an NFL spokesperson said, “Although there have been a number of changes in the networks’ broadcast booths over the past couple of seasons, our priority, and the priority of our network partners remains the same – produce a high quality, engaging broadcast that our fans love whether its Thursday, Sunday or Monday. For ‘TNF,’ we get that with Mike Tirico, a terrific broadcaster, and Cris Collinsworth at NBC and the new team of Jim Nantz and Tony Romo at CBS.”

Nice misuse of “its” instead of “it’s” there, NFL, but beyond that, this is a sensible decision. There’s no dispute of Tirico’s ability to call a prime-time NFL game; he did that on ESPN’s Monday Night Football from 2006-2015. And it would have made much more sense to have him do Thursdays and Michaels do Sundays last year; that keeps the 72-year-old Michaels fresher for his Sunday work and makes Thursday night feel a little different. The idea of the NFL (rather than its broadcasters) deciding who is and isn’t qualified to call its games, especially when it comes to an obviously-qualified broadcaster like Tirico, is also hilariously unnecessary micromanagement, and it’s good they’ve finally gotten over that.

This is the right decision for NBC, allowing Michaels some rest and giving the 50-year-old Tirico some more reps (as he’s presumably the long-term plan for SNF announcer once Michaels retires). It’s the right decision for the NFL, deciding to stop locking a qualified broadcaster out of Thursdays and producing perhaps a more energetic and informed broadcast on both nights by not making the play-by-play man do two games in four days. The only amazing thing is that it took so long to figure this out, as it should have been an obvious call to make last year. Better late than never, but the NBC Thursday night drama created last year still is something that reflects poorly on the NFL, even if they’ve fixed it now.

Those surveyed by Deloitte averaged three streaming service subscriptions, but many weren't thrilled with the numbers of services they had to subscribe to get what they want. That's worth noting for sports, considering the fragmentation in the sports streaming landscape.

The management services provider for two West Virginia sports books and the state's online betting app is in a dispute with a third-party technology vendor, which means those books won't be able to offer early-round March Madness betting.

Those surveyed by Deloitte averaged three streaming service subscriptions, but many weren't thrilled with the numbers of services they had to subscribe to get what they want. That's worth noting for sports, considering the fragmentation in the sports streaming landscape.

The management services provider for two West Virginia sports books and the state's online betting app is in a dispute with a third-party technology vendor, which means those books won't be able to offer early-round March Madness betting.